Today, I stand to boast about an exciting business on the western edge of Norfolk county called Gopher Dunes. Many locals driving by on Highway 59 might view this as a dirt track where dirt bike enthusiasts just go to rip it up once in a while. Truth be told, Gopher Dunes is a premier race track that broke ground in 1986 with Frank and Barb Schuster, the masterminds behind bringing world-class racing talent and entertainment to their property. I’ve known the Schuster family since I was very young—quiet, behind-the-scenes folk who have always given back to their community. Today, Barb and Frank’s son Derek has his hand on the throttle as owner and president.

The main feature of Gopher Dunes is the world-famous two-kilometre sand track. The course features man-made obstacles with a 40-rider starting gate. Racers who have travelled the globe maintain that Gopher Dunes is one of the most difficult sand tracks in the entire world. After a long day of riding, most riders quip, “Just happy to have survived.”

Over the years, the property has grown to include a beginner, novice and peewee track.

Tired of watching action on the track? No problem. There’s fishing, swimming, trail riding and camping right on-site.

As someone who has grown up frequenting Gopher Dunes, I assure you, the family atmosphere is one to behold.

A few weeks ago, I took part in the kickoff of the Honda Canada/GDR/Fox racing season. A stellar team racing out of Courtland includes one of Canada’s top racers, Dylan Wright, seasoned veteran Tyler Medaglia, and from down under Australia, the youngest member of the team, Tiger Wood, who joins as an amateur.

Good luck.

Once again, I’d like to welcome Lynn Courey, Melanie Jani and Marlene Yip to the House from the Sashbear organization.

I have two wonderful guests from the riding of Niagara West who are here today. The mayor of Wainfleet, Brian Grant, and Joe Gonzalez are here at Queen’s Park witnessing democracy in action.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

As members will see, on their desk is a notice that today is Peterborough Day at Queen’s Park. We’ll have a reception in rooms 228 and 230.

I am seeking unanimous consent to wear my Peterborough Petes jersey for Peterborough Day as well as my Trent University Converse running shoes for Peterborough Day.

—from my constituency office, my assistants Sally Carson and Jini Ganesalingam;

—from the city of Peterborough, Councillor Lesley Parnell and government relations adviser Sarah McDougall Perrin;

—from the Peterborough Petes, general manager Mike Oke and Roger the mascot;

—from the Peterborough County-City Paramedics, Chief Randy Mellow, Chief Patricia Bromfield, Michelle Walsh and Alison Gratton;

—from Peterborough county, Deputy Warden Sherry Senis, Councillor Ron Black, Tracie Bertrand, Karen Jopling and Emmanuel Pinto;

—from Miranda Water Treatment Systems, Michael Skinner and Ryan Moore;

—from Peterborough and the Kawarthas Chamber of Commerce, Sarah Budd;

—from Trent University, Ryan Sisson, Alison Scholl, Jessica Gordon and Sabrina Kuipers; and

—from the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus, Meredith Staveley-Watson and Lauren Wilkinson.

It gives me great honour to be able to introduce Carol Dueck, the executive director of the Mack school of nursing alumni association; also Willy Noiles, who’s a good friend of mine. He is on my riding association, and he is a great advocate for injured workers.

Welcome to your House.

I would also like to welcome the renowned disability and injured workers activist Willy Noiles. Thank you for being here. It’s always a pleasure to see you.

This question is for the Premier.

This afternoon, thousands of people from all across Ontario are coming to Queen’s Park to stand up for public health care. They’re standing up for seniors who are being charged thousands of dollars for cataract surgery, for patients who are being charged an annual fee just to get primary care. The minister knows that these practices are illegal under the Canada Health Act, but she refuses to investigate or take action. Instead, she’s blaming patients, saying that extra billing is their own “misunderstanding.”

So how many misunderstandings need to happen before this Premier finally stands up for patients?

There are busloads of people who are coming here to get answers from this Premier and this minister. At the same time, there are going to be rallies all across the province, in Ottawa, Cornwall, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Dryden and Thunder Bay. I hope the government has some answers, because patients and families and our overworked and overburdened health care workers have had enough. Hospital departments—closed. Emergency rooms—closed. Urgent care clinics—closed. While this government enriches their shareholder friends, Ontarians are literally paying for it.

What is this government going to do to protect public health care—or are we going to see more pay-for-it health care?

I have the great honour of introducing to the chamber today, in the Speaker’s gallery, my wife, Najia Crawford, and my mother-in-law, Zahida Mahmood, who are here to see page captain Farah Crawford today.

I’d like to welcome the parents of one of our staff members from the Ministry of Long-Term Care: Speranzo Guida and Francesca Guida. Welcome to the House.

I’d like to introduce my friend Diane Elms and welcome her to the House. Diane is a trusted voice, a respected homeopath with many years of experience as a natural health care researcher and practitioner focusing on drugless cancer care.

Welcome to the House, Diane.

I’d like to welcome a constituent, Robert Palm, who is here. He saw the unanimous passing, third reading, of Garrett’s Legacy Act, which is also a tribute to his daughter, Jaime Palm.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome a group of seniors from North American Seniors club who are visiting Queen’s Park today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to welcome Natalie Mehra and the 6,000 people from the Ontario Health Coalition who will be on the front lawn of Queen’s Park right after question period. Please come and join them. They come from all over the province.

I’m delighted to invite the House and everyone listening to Downtown Milton SummerFest this Saturday.

Just to give you an idea, the small stretch of main street that hosts this festival was built for a town of 3,000 to 5,000 people, and yet, every year, we welcome 35,000 attendees at this festival. In addition to food, drinks, vendors and everything else, we also have eight different concerts—not at the same time.

I would love to see my colleagues and everyone listening out there come out to Milton and enjoy some of the hospitality my community has to offer.

On a point of order, I recognize the member for Peterborough–Kawartha.

Speaker, after 34 remarkable years of public service, assistant deputy minister Karen Glass at the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services will be retiring tomorrow.

Karen, on behalf of the people, I want to thank you for your service. Thank you for everything that you’ve done for the province of Ontario. Enjoy your retirement.

I’m very pleased to be able to welcome my husband, Matt Helleman, and my daughter Mira Pasma-Helleman to the House today.

Thanks so much for coming to spend time with me, guys.

Each year, our government invests nearly $50 million to connect hundreds of thousands of Ontarians to primary care through 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics across the province. Ontario is the first jurisdiction to use the nurse practitioner-led-clinic model of care, and we will continue to use this innovative way of delivering publicly funded primary care to connect hundreds of thousands of people across the province to the care they need.

Speaker, this year, we invested a record $110 million to create 78 new and expanded interprofessional primary care teams; and then in this year’s budget, which the opposition voted against, we’ve expanded that to $546 million over the next three years, to another 600,000 Ontarians to receive primary care.

While the opposition continues to stand in the way of our innovative ways of delivering publicly funded health care, we will continue to do what’s needed to get the job done for the people of Ontario.

Speaker, if someone is wrongfully charged for health care services, we will investigate it. That has always been the case.

We’re investing a record $85 billion into our publicly fund health care system this year, which is a 30% increase from when we took office in 2018. We’ve invested into our primary care expansion of $546 million over the next three years—to expand our primary care to another 600,000 Ontarians. We’re also investing in hospital infrastructure, with over 50 projects under way, with $50 billion associated with that.

Ontario has the most internationally educated nurses in Canada, with internationally trained nurses now making up 41% of the new applications to the College of Nurses.

Speaker, in Ontario, we have a plan and it’s working. And the opposition will continue to vote against our plan.

Last year, we registered 2,400 new physicians, with 1,000 of them being internationally trained, which the opposition voted against.

Speaker, Ontario is the first province to have a publicly funded nurse practitioner-led clinic.

In addition, the new Practice Ready Ontario program will add 50 physicians this year. The new and expanded teams are the results of a province-wide call for proposals that took place in 2023.

Ontario leads the country in how many people benefit from the long-term, stable relationship with a family doctor or primary care provider. Since 2018, the province has added over 80,000 new nurses and 12,500 new physicians, which is actually outpacing the growth of the province.